Did you consult any former presidents or celebrities about the fishbowl effect in raising the girls?
Well, you know, the truth of the matter is that the campaign was the
equivalent of me being the frog in the saucepan of water and the
temperature slowly being turned up. By the time the inauguration had
taken place, we had pretty much gotten accustomed to it.

Say what you will about the linguistic habits of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Sarah Palin; but at this moment I don't remember any of them talking about boiled frogs. The image of young Dickie Cheney in 8th grade science lab with a frog, though, is one to force from the mind. And if these people did in fact talk about boiled frogs, I'll have to join the Greens.

What should they be talking about instead? The kitty-litter box analogy, as so brilliantly laid out by Don Rose in the Chicago Daily Observer a few months ago. You have cats in your house; you think everything is great; then visitors walk in through the door, reel back in horror, and say, "What is that godawful smell?" And I say this as a lover of cats. Or as Rose put it, in a column about the colorful ex-governor Rod Blagojevich:

Out of towners often ask me how it is that folks in Chicago and
Illinois put up with all the hanky and panky that goes on in our
political snakepits.

I tell them about my cat litter box.

Currently I have two cats--once I had nine. In any case, I used to
think I kept their potty clean and odor free. Then, every so often
someone would come to the door, sniff the air and whisper in
confidence, "I think your cat box needs changing."

They were right, of course. They came from cat-free environments and
could sense a drop of urine at 30 paces, while I had grown so
desensitized to the aroma that my schnozz would tell me I was romping
through a fresh pine forest.

So it is with the denizens of our city and state.

And so it should be with us all. As recently as a few hours ago, I was impressed by Obama's use of language. And now....

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James Fallows is a staff writer for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which has been a New York Times best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.